This article was originally posted in the USA Daily Standard.
Every patient, medical care provider, Certified Diabetes Educator, dietician, nutritionist, and medical journalist has been led to believe in the existence of insulin resistance as the causative factor of Type 2 diabetes. Each one appears to lack the courage to question the veracity of the concept either because they believe it or because they are not clear about the science behind it.
I believe that patients asking questions is the only way to motivate the above people to be more cognizant of what is really happening to diabetic patients treated based on this concept. I have often been asked by people the following question:
What is the origin of the insulin resistance theory?
The evolution of insulin resistance to explain Type 2 diabetes is worth knowing because once you understand its origin, you can see why it does not appear to be correct.
Originally, it was thought that high blood sugar in adults was similar to that in children, i.e., a lack of insulin production by the pancreas, preventing the use of glucose in the body’s cells. It was thus originally called “adult-onset diabetes.”
However, when it was discovered that adults with elevated blood sugar (glucose) levels had plenty of insulin, the terminology was changed to “non-insulin-dependent diabetes,” because medical science did not understand the reason for the high blood sugar if there was insulin present. Around the 1930s, an experiment was conducted in which patients were injected with insulin and still had high blood sugar. This led Dr. Wilhem Falta of Vienna to wonder whether body cells were “resistant” to insulin, similar to the recognition at the time that bacteria could become resistant to antibiotics. In the absence of another credible explanation, endocrinologists accepted this hypothesis, and it became commonly known as the “insulin resistance” theory.
Why does this supposed insulin resistance occur?
The fact is, medical science has not yet explained why this supposed insulin resistance occurs nor by exactly what biological mechanism it happens. It remains unexplained why billions of cells in adults can suddenly switch to resisting the presence of insulin, which prevents glucose from entering those cells, that didn’t have this problem before. One of the most suspicious (and biologically illogical) elements of this theory is that insulin resistance does not occur in all 200 types of cells in the body, Rather, the theory states that insulin resistance occurs in only three main groups of cells: 1) muscle cells that have not been warmed up (inactive muscle cells), 2) liver cells, and 3) fat cells. No matter how much biological science you know or don’t know, it is clear the insulin resistance theory does not make sense. Why would only three types of cells become resistant to insulin and not the 170 other types?
Furthermore, there has never been a finding of any agents that block the binding of insulin with the insulin receptor on cells at the time Type 2 diabetes is diagnosed. In contrast, with many diseases, an agent such as an antibody has been found to block the utilization of molecules in cells. Similarly, there is no proof of any type of change in cells that might make them suddenly resist insulin. Research has not identified any differences in cells that are supposedly insulin-resistant and those that are not.
Would humanity evolve to be resistant to insulin?
Finally, the incidence of diabetes is increasing in every nation in the world, but it is not logical that millions of people around the world are evolving to be resistant to a natural body hormone, while millions of others are not. Diabetes is not a contagious disease, and no other hormones are being affected to the extent we see among the increasing numbers of people developing diabetes.
I suggest you also consider the illogical paradox of how modern medicine treats Type 2 diabetes in many patients with insulin injections. In no other disease, such as a bacterial infection resistant to an antibiotic, do doctors regularly prescribe more of the same antibiotic that the patient is resistant to? Have you ever heard of a doctor prescribing even more penicillin to a patient with an infection if the germ is found resistant to penicillin? Yet, endocrinologists have for decades promoted and popularized the idea of using insulin for blood sugar control along with diet and exercise.
For all these reasons, I believe we must reevaluate the insulin resistance theory as incorrect and look for the one real cause that can logically explain high blood sugar and Type 2 diabetes: the modern diet full of grains and grain flour products. I explain the details of this insight in several of my blogs and books.
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